Doctor Meets Psychologist
by Childhood Aspirations
Summary: Sometimes life just gives us more than we can handle. In times like this, even the best among us have to spill their feelings to somebody. That, in case you were wondering, is the point of certain professions... ONESHOT, post DOOMSDAY


**Doctor Meets Psychologist**

_By Childhood Aspirations_

Disclaimer: I do not own_ Doctor Who_, or any of the characters, etc. etc. yada yada yada...

--

The dark-haired woman pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and shifted in her seat, rustling the papers in the file on her lap.

"So, Doctor…?"

"Just the Doctor."

"Ah…of course… So, Doctor, is there any particular reason you arranged for this appointment? Is there something you would especially like to talk about?"

The man before her, who apparently had no other name than "the Doctor," was making her rather nervous. He didn't act like most patients who made an appointment with a psychologist. He wasn't even in his seat.

He was standing across the room, staring out the window blankly, hands stuffed into the pockets of his brown suit. Presently he extracted one of those hands and ran it through his hair, causing it to stand on end, poking out in various directions.

Yes, he was making her very nervous.

And that was saying a lot.

Psychologists couldn't afford to get nervous very easily.

"Doctor?"

He turned from the window, those wide brown eyes and confused expression telling her that he hadn't been listening to her at all. "Sorry; did you say something?"

"Yes, I did. Won't you have a seat?" she said patiently, motioning to a chair across from her. He eyed it as though never having seen one before and finally came over from the window, seating himself.

Of course, it was too much to ask that he be perfectly still. His long fingers drummed on the arm of the chair, accompanying to an offbeat rhythm that made absolutely no sense to her.

Maria Giovanni cleared her throat, shifting the papers again. She couldn't recall the last time she didn't know where to begin with a patient. Might as well ask him. He probably had a preference. "Is there any place in particular you would like to begin, Doctor?" she inquired.

He glanced at her, his gaze formerly fixed on the carpet underneath him. "Hmm…? Oh, yes. Sorry." He shifted in his seat, which confirmed her suspicions that he was about as uncomfortable with this situation as she was.

Although, she wasn't supposed to be uncomfortable. This was her chosen profession, after all…

"Um, well…" Now it was his turn to clear his throat; he frowned slightly at the name plac sitting on her desk. "…Miss Giovanni, there was this girl named Rose. Rose Tyler. We traveled around a bit…" He shrugged, squinting at nothing in particular. "Well, maybe more than a bit… Well…maybe a lot… Well…" He shook his head. "Never mind." A pause. "Where was I…?"

"Rose Tyler. You traveled with her," Maria said patiently.

"Yes…Rose." His face softened, and his voice followed suit. "She was amazing. She could stand up to anything. No matter how many scrapes we got into, she never ran away. She stuck with it." He stopped again and folded his hands in his lap, staring at them bleakly.

Maria pursed her lips. Getting the bare necessity of information from this man was like pulling teeth. And how many scrapes could a couple get into while traveling? He made it sound like those scrapes were regular occurrences. "And then…? She left you?"

He blew out a breath. "In a manner of speaking," he said softly.

So…it was relationship issues, then. Well, that wasn't too hard. Maria had dealt with relationships countless times.

"Well, Doctor, have you stopped to think about why that is?" she inquired briskly. "Was there an age difference between you?"

He frowned, looking a bit perplexed. "Ah…yes…?"

"Do you think perhaps that had something to do with it?"

"No." His short reply made her blink. His expression had hardened slightly.

"No?"

"No. You see; it didn't really have anything to do with anything like that. She didn't want to leave. She kind of, just, well, she had to. I didn't want her to leave either, but… Yeah. She had to."

"Was it parental intervention that caused the separation?" Maria asked, pressing for more details. She needed something more to work with here. She wasn't even sure why this man was here.

"Sort of, yeah."

_Kind of, sort of, in a manner of speaking… Could he get any more ambiguous?_ She wondered.

"Well, perhaps the situation can be mended by discussing it calmly. Perhaps you should meet with her parents."

"I'm afraid that's a bit impossible," he said regretfully. "They live, ah, very, very far away."

She frowned. "I thought you said you traveled."

"I do, certainly, but…not that far," he said with a shrug and a ghost of a smile.

"I see. Well, is there any way you could contact them, or Rose?"

"No."

Maria tossed the file on the desk in frustration. He started and glanced at her, surprised. "Doctor, I'm not exactly sure what you want me to do or say. Do you think you could help me out here?" She raised a brow.

He was silent. The knuckles of his clasped hands were turning white. "I…I need to stop thinking about her," he said finally, heavily. "She's always in my head, with my thoughts, and…" He pried his hands apart and rubbed his eyes.

Maria frowned. There was something odd here. She ran her tongue over her lips. "Did…did Miss Tyler, ah, pass on?" she inquired, trying to phrase the question as delicately as possible. She wasn't sure why she was asking. There wasn't necessarily anything in what the Doctor said that suggested it.

Call it a hunch.

He hesitated. "In…" His voice faded and finally he just nodded mutely.

Strange… For a minute, she thought he was going to say "in a manner of speaking" again. How could someone die "in a manner of speaking?"

Oh well.

This was different. This wasn't just a broken or damaged relationship. This was a man who'd lost someone he cared about.

And she felt inadequate.

She didn't know what to say.

"I…I'm sorry," she murmured.

He mustered a small smile. "Thanks." He gave a heavy sigh and then clapped his hands against his knees briskly, pushing himself up. "Yes. Well, thank you. It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Giovanni."

She stood up too, startled. "You're leaving?" she queried. "Are you sure there's nothing else you want to talk about?"

He turned around, eyes wide and brows raised. He thought for a minute. "Nope." He grinned at her, and Maria almost let her mouth fall open.

He was so…different…

More so because of the energetic grin than because of the abrupt end of the appointment, though that certainly affected her opinion too.

Maybe he suffered from mood swings.

He walked back over to her desk and stuck out his hand cheerfully. She shook it slowly, staring at him. "I just needed to talk about it a little," he said. "Thanks for listening." He whirled around and started for the door, catching up his long kaki coat from the coat rack by the door.

"Wait!" she called. He turned back, waiting. "Doctor… This Rose Tyler; did you…did she…" She swallowed and tried again. "Did you love her?" she said in a rush.

Another question she couldn't say why she asked.

The Doctor studied her for a moment, and for that brief moment, she could have sworn she saw something moist glittering in his eyes.

Was he…?

"Bye, Maria," he said, pushing through the door with a brief wave for her.

"Doctor?" She scrambled out from behind her desk, but by the time she made it out into the lobby, he was nowhere in sight. The secretary at the front desk watched her warily, maybe a little confused.

Maria straightened her suit and returned to her office. It didn't really matter. It was probably a question she shouldn't have asked anyway. Of course, psychologists did have to ask the tough questions…

_I guess I'll never know..._

_--_

The Doctor bent over the control panel of the TARDIS and closed his eyes briefly. Then he was pushing buttons and pulling levers, preparing to head off into time and space yet again.

"You're a smart woman, Maria Giovanni," he muttered to the empty TARDIS. "A very smart woman."


End file.
